Conservation genetics of a threatened butterfly: comparison of allozymes, RAPDs and microsatellites

Abstract

BackgroundAddressing genetic issues in the management of fragmented wild populations of threatened species is one of the most important challenges in conservation biology. Nowadays, a diverse array of molecular methods exists to assess genetic diversity and differentiation of wild populations such as allozymes, dominant markers and co-dominant markers. However it remains worthwhile i) to compare the genetic estimates obtained using those several markers in order to ii) test their relative utility, reliability and relevance and iii) the impact of these results for the design of species-specific conservation measures.ResultsFollowing the successful isolation of 15 microsatellites loci for the cranberry fritillary butterfly, Boloria aquilonaris, we analyzed the genetic diversity and structure of eight populations located in four different landscapes, at both the regional and the landscape scales. We confront results based on microsatellites to those obtained using allozymes and RAPDs on the same samples. Genetic population analyses using different molecular markers indicate that the B. aquilonaris populations are characterized by a weak genetic variation, likely due to low effective population size and low dispersal at the regional scale. This results in inbreeding in some populations, which may have detrimental consequences on their long term viability. However, gene flow within landscape is limited but not inexistent, with some long range movements resulting in low or no isolation by distance. Spatial structuring was detected among the most isolated populations.ConclusionsThe use of allozymes and RAPD are of very limited value to determine population structuring at small spatial (i.e. landscape) scales, microsatellites giving much higher estimate resolution. The use of RAPD data is also limited for evidencing inbreeding. However, coarse-grain spatial structure (i.e. regional scale), and gene flow estimates based on RAPD and microsatellites data gave congruent results. At a time with increasing development of new molecular methods and markers, dominant markers may still be worthwhile to consider in organisms for which no genomic information is available, and for which limited resources are available.

Census and contemporary effective population size of two populations of the protected Spanish Moon Moth (Graellsia isabellae)

“…This finding warns against the extrapolation of N e /N ratios, as different populations of the same species are likely to experience differences in the aforementioned factors. Ours are likely the first N e /N values reported in any moth and are quite similar to the ones published for wild populations of endangered butterflies by Saarinen et al (2010) and Turlure et al (2014).…”

“…These authors suggested the incorporation of uncertainty into N e /N estimates. Ours are likely the first N e /N values reported in any moth and are quite similar to the ones published for wild populations of endangered butterflies by Saarinen et al (2010) and Turlure et al (2014). Using N e(SS) and N e(T) ( Table 4) and following Belmar-Lucero et al (2012), we obtain that the N e /N ratio is 1.1-5.4 times higher in Puebla (0.025, 0.033) than in the National Park (0.024, 0.006).…”

Whole-Genome Multi-omic Study of Survival in Patients with Glioblastoma Multiforme

“…However, samples from the posterior distribution can be obtained using a Gibbs sampler. We used the BGLR software ( Pérez and de los Campos 2014 ) to draw samples from the posterior distribution of the above model.…”

Effect of Climatic Conditions and Land Cover on Genetic Structure and Diversity of Eunica tatila (Lepidoptera) in the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

“…Furthermore, this method demands fewer experimental steps and is relatively easy to perform. The use of dominant markers can be considered worthwhile in organisms for which no genomic information are available [48] as is the case for many butterfly species [49]. In addition, microsatellites are inherently difficult to use in butterflies, partially due to the high frequency of null alleles [49].…”

“…In addition, microsatellites are inherently difficult to use in butterflies, partially due to the high frequency of null alleles [49]. Therefore, ISSR genetic markers have been widely applied in studies on butterfly population genetic [15][16][17]43,48,[50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57].…”